If a pilot ejects, what is the autopilot programmed to do? (2018)

Posted by avestura 10/30/2025

If a pilot ejects, what is the autopilot programmed to do? (2018)(aviation.stackexchange.com)

88 points | 71 commentspage 2

darkhorn 10/30/2025|

I think the most proper thing for the jet should be to destroy itself. In a war enviornment I would not like my enemy to gain intel about my military jets.

yjftsjthsd-h 10/30/2025||

Not my wheelhouse, but doesn't that involve packing the aircraft with explosives, and wouldn't that involve risk of blowing up if someone else shoots you? Or is there some better way to self-destruct?

estimator7292 10/30/2025|||

One could calculate the amount of energy in a given amount of explosive and smashing into the ground at high velocity. I'm too lazy to do so, but I can tell you they're on the same scale.

A heavy object moving fast has a shocking amount of energy. When such an object impacts the ground, all that energy has to go somewhere.

SoftTalker 10/30/2025||||

Impacting the ground usually does it.

klysm 10/30/2025||||

Assuming there is an autopilot present, nose diving at max afterburner straight down is probably going to yield a similar result

miki123211 10/31/2025||||

You could self-destruct just the software / computers by encrypting everything with a few keys that are easy to destroy.

This is a standard technique for quick and secure data wipes, particularly on e.g. modern SSD drives where a traditional wipe might be incomplete due to wear leveling algorithms.

cosmicgadget 10/30/2025||||

There are probably a number of clever and failsafe ways to divert jet fuel somewhere that would destroy the plane on command.

DonHopkins 10/30/2025|||

Jets are usually full of jet fuel that can blow up if someone else shoots you, or they run into the ground.

mikkupikku 10/31/2025|||

You could erase computer memory, but blowing up the plane won't stop them from gaining intel about the materials, mechanism, and whatnot that make up the plane. An explosion won't vaporize the airplane, just break it into smallish pieces. Those can be collected and analyzed to reconstruct most any detail about the construction of the airplane. They even do this with missiles and bombs. Even shell fragments. When artillery shells packed full of high explosives go off, their intricate fuse mechanisms are left remarkably intact.

crazygringo 10/30/2025|||

I think its high-speed collision with the ground or ocean generally takes care of destroying it. Especially with no pilot attempting to keep it level and slow it down and minimize damage.

jojobas 10/30/2025||

Would you go near a plane that's an electronic signal away from blowing itself up?

Even if mechanical, warplanes get combat damage, and having a system like that could make a difference between survivable and sure death.

dylan604 10/30/2025||

Maybe bring some strong jamming equipment to prevent the electronic signal from being received?

jojobas 10/31/2025||

The signal can originate on the plane itself due to a software glitch, stray currents in the grounding skin or whatever. If anything, jammers tend to interfere with the carrier's electronics itself.

1970-01-01 11/1/2025||

They did not address the fact that sometimes there's more than one soul onboard. So the answer is truly "it depends"

cosmicgadget 10/30/2025||

Thinking about this one (https://theaviationist.com/2025/02/12/ea-18g-growler-crashes...), it seems like after ejection you'd want the plane to lawn dart whenever possible. It allows the pilot to know if it is an okay place to ditch and it minimizes the reverse engineering risk.

I imagine there is a good reason this isn't the way things are though.

jayd16 10/31/2025||

I wonder if dumping the fuel ASAP is a good idea or bad idea.

euroderf 11/1/2025|

Only good, I would think. It's pretty volatile stuff innit ? Dispersion.

shadyKeystrokes 11/2/2025||

[dead]

tekla 10/30/2025|

TLDR: It does nothing and it should never do anything